Numb
by InkBlue
Summary: Travel back to the year 1940 and meet Cladissa Newton, a girl who has lived sheltered from magic. After her parents' murders, she travels to Hogwarts where she meets Tom Riddle and realizes that love and magic can be good or evil.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

A car pulled up to a young girl on the streets. The girl was worried; she knew that car.

It was the car that symbolized the county police. And they seemed to want to talk to her.

"Cladissa Newton? We have some grave news for you, I'm afraid. Please get into the car and we will explain while we drive you home," said the man in the driver's seat, obviously grim. His brow was sweat streaked and there were bags under his luminous blue eyes.

The girl, who was obviously Cladissa Newton, flung her flaming red hair from her face as it had been pushed there in the breeze that had followed the police man's arrival. Her face remained blank, which worried the police officer.

"What is wrong, sir? Can you not tell me here before you drive me home in your highly reputable vehicle to my dear parents? I dare say that would save my own reputation as well as theirs. No girl in her right mind wants to be driven home by a policeman."

The man frowned. She had a rather advanced vocabulary for a sixteen-year-old…

"I'm afraid I must escort you home, Ms Newton. This is news that can not be shared publicly."

The girl got into the car, but her piercing green eyes never left the road.

"Cladissa, I know this is hard to hear, but your parents were killed. We're still trying to find out how, but there are no marks on their bodies, no clues as to how it could have happened. They left you a letter, but we have no idea why…it's blank. But we figured because it says on the front you must read it, we should give it to you."

Her face was still blank, which worried the driver even more. He gave her the letter, which was still curious to him.

The girl took it with fingers that betrayed her real emotions by quivering slightly as she opened it.

Her green eyes whizzed across the page as if there was text on it, her eyes filling with tears as she read each line, but her face remaining blank as a mannequin's.

The officer was really becoming worried as she crumpled the page up in one hand with an angered fire blazing in her poisonous eyes.

"Officer, I want to see their bodies when I get to my house. Will you allow that? Good. I wonder what will become of me, sir. Will I be sent to an orphanage? I have no relatives to speak of…"

The officer was disturbed by this girl greatly. She had shown virtually no emotion at the news of her parent's death and seemed to be able to read something on that blank piece of paper…this girl was beyond strange. And as for what would become of her…he didn't know. Somehow the officer thought it would be unwise to say so though, so he stalled by asking, "What did that page say? You seemed to be reading it."

Her green eyes were deadly as she replied, "Nothing you couldn't read yourself, officer."

He frowned.

"Is there a trick to reading it? A magic spell, perhaps?"

His gut twisted as he watched her face contort. Had he said something wrong?Her eyes blazed with a sudden aggression that made the officer in the passenger's seat grab her wrist and say, "Easy, kid. He doesn't mean anything; we're just trying to find out- AARG!"

He pulled his hand away, shaking it and blowing on it as if he'd been burned.

The officer felt his heart rate quicken as the girl spoke.

"Don't touch me," she said quietly, the venom in her voice cold enough to chill the officer's blood where he sat.

In fact, the windshield was being covered by slowly spreading ice as he drove, making it almost impossible to see out of it.

This was getting very strange; almost unnatural…

"Stop the car voluntarily, or you shan't drive another inch in it again," said Cladissa, her eyes holding the officer's attention.

He knew the threat was probably idle, yet fear made his insides seem to turn to mush.

He didn't stop.

"Stop the bloody car! I warned you, sir!"

His blood pounded in his ears, but again he did not stop. Stopping the car could make her think she had control, which was never good.

He heard a bang like a cannon shot and went unconscious, but not before seeing the girl's door fly open as she sprinted from the vehicle.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Cladissa Newton's world was falling apart at the seams.

How could her parents, _her parents_, be dead? She had spoken to them just before they had sent her out to buy some cleaner.

"_Don't stay out too late, Claidi. We'll have dinner ready when you get home." _They had said to her, her mother smiling and pushing a loose strand of greying red hair from her face which must have fallen from her tight bun as her father's green eyes sparkled pleasantly.

But they were dead. Gone.

Claidi had kept her face resolutely blank when the officer in his police car had pulled up, hoping to make him leave her alone. The car ride had been a struggle, though.

She didn't regret what she had done to the car; those men wouldn't remember anything.

All through their conversation, Claidi had felt her blood pound through her veins with such ferocity that she was surprised she didn't burst right there and then. She had burnt that man's hand without meaning to, but she hadn't thought that things would elevate to where they had.

She hadn't been able to control this new, burning rage that had destroyed that police cruiser. She had felt as if her blood boiled while she threatened those policemen, but they had not heeded her warning and she had somehow made the engine explode with enough force to destroy the car, but not enough to kill those men.

It was strange, that feeling of overpowering rage. Claidi was usually calm and level. She never lost her temper, ever.

Admittedly, this event had destroyed her temper control, but she never thought she would end up destroying a police car.

The gap in her emotions that her parents had once lived in felt like a gaping abyss that time could not erase.

And their letter had left her without a single reasonable thought in her head.

She looked down at the crumpled sheet in her hand, wondering just how much this would change her life.

She couldn't bear to look at it again, but she remembered what her mother's elegant handwriting had said as clearly as if she was reading it right there and then.

_She was a witch. _

Claidi's mind reeled with the information…it was almost too much for her to handle.

She surveyed her surroundings suddenly, as if expecting someone would hear her thoughts and jump out of the emerald bushes to her left.

The houses around here were maddeningly neat and tidy, their neatly trimmed lawns and perfectly clipped shrubbery flanking their perfect little houses and perfect little cars which were the only things that ruined the beautiful scenery by belching black smoke out of their exhaust pipes.

When nobody leapt from the foliage, Claidi let herself take a breath of the evening air, wondering what time it was.

She hadn't heard the old clock in the town of Little Hangleton chime nine yet, but she may have missed it in the police car or in her reverie…

Claidi angled her head to the sky so that the brightness of the stars leeched all colour from her face, leaving her skin a perfect white that made her green eyes dark grey. She noticed that the moon was a most unusual colour tonight. The large, glowing orb was burning a blood red the likes of which she had never seen. Claidi had known harvest moons before, but not this vivid…

Tears filled her eyes, shining on her face like diamonds as she stood on the moon-lit road.

They were gone, dead, done. Her parents were no more and they'd left her with so much to worry about…all of this mystery.

She didn't know what to do with herself or her new powers…where was she supposed to go? Was there somewhere you went to be a witch?

There was also the matter of where she was supposed to live, but she didn't want to deal with that now. Not yet.

Right now she wanted to feel the pain that she knew she had to feel to get over her parents' deaths. She wanted to feel her heart rip in two and her head go mad for a little while until she could accept the fact that they were gone, erased from the world that they had called home. She wanted to sit in her bed and cry for days on end while she had food and entertainment brought to her, to not care about how she looked or what she did, just to grieve…

But she was getting ahead of herself. She didn't have anywhere to go now, for she had no family left to speak of. Besides, there would be nobody to get her food and take care of her as she went into her sad-fest. Claidi had to be practical now. She had to put off her grief, or at least tone it down until she could find a place to be safe…she couldn't believe that her parents hadn't had a plan for her, but she couldn't dwell on this now.

Claidi looked down at the ground just as the purplish clouds to the right of the moon began pouring copious amounts of rain onto her and all of Little Hangleton. Her blood red hair went stringy and limp, changing from its usual vivid hue to a darker more coppery red. Raindrops clung to the ends of her long lashes and sparkled like jewels when they mingled with the salt tears on her cheek. Her cheeks started to turn red with the cold adding a glow to her face as her green eyes burned with grief, the tears still coming thick and fast.

She didn't care that her clothes were getting soaked, or that she would probably get a cold. She just thought of her mother's kindly face and even kinder words who would do anything for her and do it with a smile that said "I love you" every second of every day. She just thought of her father's quiet demeanour as he sat by their hearth on cold winter evenings, how he smiled his small but meaningful smile at her and only her, telling her how amazing she was when he was usually so quiet that he didn't give compliments very often. They had loved her so much, but their lives had been torn apart by her and her powers. In their letter, they had said that they had known that their murder was coming, that it was only a matter of time…

Claidi didn't notice the chiming of the clock in the town square as it went off.

_Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding…_

At the exact moment the clock struck eleven, however, she looked up unprompted to squint through the rain at a figure standing on the lawn of the house whose shrubs she had been so wary of earlier.

The person was standing at the door of the house whose yellow trim looked slightly eerie in the darkness. They were tall and clearly wearing some sort of robe, but through the heavy rain she couldn't see much more.

In fact, her vision was clouding and going black…perhaps she'd stayed out in the rain too long…

Her eyes had gone foggy before she hit the ground and the figure advanced on her.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The first thing Claidi saw when she regained consciousness was a brick wall.

It was dark, dark red brick, almost black, and it had a stern edge to it, just in the way it glinted harshly when she shifted her head. The mortar between the bricks was a dull grey and Claidi felt that if she counted every bubble in the material, it would be an even, orderly number; it was just the essence of the wall that told her that she was in an orderly place.

The second thing she noticed was that she was lying down on a soft, warm something. It was clean and cozy and smelled of laundry detergent. She was on a bed.

But that didn't make sense…her bed wasn't beside a dark brick wall. In fact, her bed wasn't available for her to sleep on at the moment…unless what she had thought had happened hadn't really happened and she had just dreamed that Mum and Dad were…

She couldn't bear to even think the word.

What was going on? All she remembered from the might before was getting the news, blowing up the police car, walking down the deserted street, the rain falling, the figure standing on that lawn…

Claidi's brow furrowed as she lay there, trying to remember what had happened next, but no answer came. The next part of her memory was the brick wall.

She rolled over in her bed, feeling the bruises ignite as she moved. She must have fallen down…

Light hit her face as she took in the room. A lamp was pointed directly at her eyes and she couldn't see anything beyond the blinding orb.

Claidi tried feebly to lift her arm to shield her eyes, but was too weak to get it more than a centimetre off of the bed.

"I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Newton. I thought you would be sleeping for much longer than this." Came a kind voice from behind the light.

The brightness faded as the light was moved.

Claidi squinted as her eyes adjusted and saw a man sitting at her bedside.

He diverted her attention from the room around them with his auburn hair and beard that extended to his belt and his electric blue eyes. He was very tall even when sitting and dressed in the most absurd violet suit Claidi had seen in all of her sixteen years.

A kindly smile was on his face as he stared into her eyes.

"My name is Albus Dumbledoor and we've met before, but you wouldn't remember. You were only a day old the last time our eyes met, Cladissa. I knew your parents."

She looked at him, unable to speak. She didn't think her parents had ever mentioned this man, and she would have remembered the name if they had; she always remembered names.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this now. Your mother and father were good people, and I'm terribly grieved to hear of their…well…"

Claidi's insides suddenly burned with anger, and she supposed he could see it in her eyes, for his smile faded into a frown of concern.

"Don't speak of them in past tense, sir. I had a dream, that's all. I'm probably in some hospital because I had an accident or something and I'm imagining this. My parents are not dead."

Dumbledore smiled sadly.

"Denial will get you nowhere, Cladissa. Your parents were killed by a wizard last night and you destroyed a police car when you heard. Do you remember it?"

She glared at him. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? She knew that Mum and Dad were alive and well, probably waiting for her to get better from whatever accident she had had. Couldn't he leave well enough alone? They were probably worried.

"Ms. Newton, I know this is hard, but you must accept that they're not going to come for you. Your parents were-"

"MY PARENTS ARE NOT DEAD! THEY WOULDN'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS! YOU'RE NOT REAL! MUM! DAD! HELP ME!"

"Cladissa, listen to me! They're gone! You know it's true. You saw me last night when you were on the streets and it started raining. You fell and I got you here." Dumbledoor's reasonable voice was maddeningly calm.

Claidi wanted to hurt this kindly man, wanted to attack him, wanted to make that calm face contort into a mask of fear. Yes, she needed to see his fear, as if she was a wild animal set loose from a zoo by accident… she felt like a monster, so why couldn't she be one?

But there was truth to Dumbledoor's words, for she did remember seeing the tall figure on that lawn…

The fire died in her green eyes and grief replaced it.

Tears spilled from her eyes, dripping onto her pillow and leaving tracks on her pale cheeks.

He was right. She wasn't a monster, and Mum and Dad wouldn't want her to go mad because they were gone.

She turned to Dumbledoor.

"I'm sorry, sir. It's hard to accept the truth when it's such a nightmare, I guess."

He smiled sadly again, but he seemed to understand.

"I know how it feels, Cladissa. But you must be wondering where you are?"

She looked around the room suddenly, taking in the small window and drab curtains. The brick walls were not even plastered.

Claidi looked back at him and nodded.

"We are currently in an orphanage, Claidi. I thought this would be a good place for you in the summers. There are others of our kind here, thought I don't suggest that you associate yourself with them."

She was confused. The summers?

"If I'm only here for the summers, where am I the rest of the year? And what do you mean, 'one of our kind'?"

He smiled slightly and replied, "I'm getting ahead of myself, Cladissa, please forgive me. I merely meant that you could come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the year to hone your magical skills. And by one of our kind I meant that a wizard your age lives here too. I'm the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, you know."

Claidi gaped at him.

Dumbledore chuckled quietly.

"I know that your parents told you in the letter you have in your hand because I read it, if you'll forgive me."

She blushed and asked, "Sir, how come that police officer couldn't read the letter? My parents weren't magical, were they?"

Dumbledore sighed and looked suddenly as tired as an old man would after telling stories about the First World War.

"No, your parents weren't magical, but they knew of magic and magical people who helped them. In short, they knew of me. But that's all you need to know for now. I must explain what is going to happen, how you'll be getting to Hogwarts and when."

Claidi sighed this time, but she figured that if her parents had trusted this man, she had better. She would ask him more questions later.

"Now, term starts on September the first and you'll have to catch the Hogwarts express on platforms 9 ¾ which is made difficult by the fact that you don't know how to get onto the platform. But that will be explained to you in time as well, for I have other matters to attend to while in London. Ah, that's another thing, I can see. We're in London, so I suggest you don't go wandering around deserted or seemingly deserted streets around here.

"But, back to Hogwarts. I will be tutoring you privately until you are up to speed in your magic, because most students at the school have been doing this since they were eleven. I also purchased all of your school supplies and there is now only one thing that you need to buy that no other wizard could get for you. Your wand. Mrs. Cole, the orphanage mistress will take you to the shop that sells them but she will not know what you were doing after she shows you, so please don't pester her about it.

"Now, I really must be going. I hope you'll stay in your room until it's time to go wand shopping and to school. There are certain people here who I feel you should not come into contact with until you are prepared to deal with the prejudices that follow people of non-magical parentage.

"But that is neither here nor there. I must be going. Good luck and goodbye Cladissa Newton."

Dumbledore finished speaking and looked directly into her eyes now, blue meeting and holding green.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this, I really am. I knew Harry and Amanda, and they were good people, even if they were muggles. I miss them; even I didn't have such a profound tie to them, so I can only imagine how you feel now."

He stood from his chair and Claidi suddenly desperately wanted him to stay.

"Please, sir, couldn't you stay for a while? I know you must be busy, but I'm so confused and we've been talking for only a short time…I need to know more about this Hogwarts…"

He looked very sad suddenly.

"I'm afraid I must go, Claidi. Goodbye and good luck."

Claidi felt drowsiness coming over her, but knew it was probably Dumbledoor trying to put her back to sleep. She fought against the force and even kicked herself to keep awake. She wanted to see him leave.

Claidi heard a distant sigh as Dumbledoor gave up trying to battle her mind.

He walked to the door in two quick strides that made the room around him seem like only a closet, then, with a quick parting glance Claidi's way, vanished with a pop.

She suddenly felt empty as she lay there, as if she was so insignificant that no one man could stay with her through her trying emotional healing, even if it was a man she hardly knew.

Claidi almost felt numb, numb with the pain, numb with the misery, numb with the loneliness. It was a feeling that had never overwhelmed her before, but did now. She felt better feeling nothing at all than all of these things she was blocking out by numbing herself to emotion.

If this is my way to cope with all of the things Dumbledoor has just given me to worry about, then this is what I'll do, she thought.

Claidi didn't want to sleep just yet, not when she had so many things to process from her brief chat with Dumbledoor, but she really had nothing better to do, so she let her mind slip into unconsciousness and dreams of faceless students at Hogwarts chanting her name and taunting.

The next few days Claidi tried to do as Dumbledoor had asked, but it was extremely difficult to keep inside her room when he had told her that there was another of their kind in the orphanage…it was like being told she had won an amazing prize and being unable to claim it.

But at least it took most of her attention away from her parents.

The gaping abyss had still not closed at all, but she didn't want to face if until she had enough time and energy to let it take her completely. When she mourned her parents, she wanted to do it properly, not bit by bit.

The days seemed to drag out endlessly, and Claidi was growing more and more on edge than she had been before in her life.

Her face became more flushed and excited as the days went on as well, but this was overshadowed by the fact that she was shutting herself into a shell of emotional numbness which sometimes even blocked her from the rest of the world; sometimes she was so engrossed in the numbing that when someone spoke to her, they had to shake her to get a response.

Claidi didn't even know if she had made any friends in that orphanage, but she didn't care as much as she should have.

She was just so excited and anticipating of going to Hogwarts, it was like a fever, burning out almost all of her other desires, save one.

Claidi was absolutely burning to know who this other witch or wizard was.

The mystery kept her up late into the nights, wondering what they were like, whether they would become good friends in the future…she wouldn't have normally taken such interest in something she thought was almost trivial, but it helped to block out her misery, so she focused on it, almost to the point of maddened obsession.

Finally the evening of August 31st crept upon her, sitting on her bed and reading, for what felt like the thousandth time, the copy of Wuthering Heights that had been given to her by Mrs. Cole, a bad-tempered, strict, and very frumpy woman who ran the orphanage.

She turned a page idly, hardly paying attention to what she was reading.

Claidi absent-mindedly turned her head to the side where her eyes caught on a calendar on the other side of the room. Her eyes were glued to the day.

Her blood seemed almost to fizz with excitement; anticipation as well as dread made her stomach flip over.

Claidi had never felt this excited from doing nothing more than look at a calendar, but she didn't waste the adrenaline on sitting in bed for long.

She slowly rose, feeling tense, as if someone was watching her. Every movement was slow and deliberate as she walked towards the door, wanting to exit her cell of a room and see this place fully for the first time, but she jerked around so quickly that her neck cricked when she heard a slight tap on her window which proved to be nothing more than a bird's wing as it took off.

Her door almost seemed to swing open of its own accord as she gently laid her icy white fingers on it.

The corridor beyond her doorway was pitch black and almost soupy, as if she could swim rather than walk into it

Claidi took a tentative step forward, hoping to accomplish what she knew not.

Her bare feet shone pale and cold in the gentle moonlight as she smoothly strode from her room and down the hallway into oblivion.

She made practically no sound as she padded down the hall, but suddenly a door to her right opened to reveal a shadowy figure.

She froze, wondering if she was about to get into trouble for simply having the whim to travel the hallway.

The figure moved forward slowly, almost ominously. It was a tall figure, obviously male because of its broad shoulders.

"If you don't move from my door muggle, there will be naught but scraps of you left." Said a velvety voice, sounding about sixteen, but still lethal.

He obviously couldn't see her, for her eyes blazed in sudden anger, taking her back to the night she had destroyed the police cruiser.

This should have warned the boy, whoever he was that she was not to be trifled with, but he didn't see.

He was a wizard, from his terms that was certain, but in that instant, Claidi didn't care.

It wasn't what he'd said that had angered her, but how he said it, as if he was so arrogant to assume that all muggles were animals.

She clenched her fists.

"At least scraps are something. Really, you'll need to work on your insults. I was simply wandering the corridors, so I wasn't really intruding your door space." She replied, trying to be cool.

The figure was frozen now.

"Goodnight," she said simply, all desire to explore the corridor at night gone.

"Wait, "said the figure, suddenly sounding a lot gentler and a lot less presumptuous.

She turned to him wordlessly.

"You're new here."

"Yes, I am. Goodnight."

Claidi went back down the corridor and into her room without another sound.

She was tired and wanted to rest for Hogwarts tomorrow.

As she drifted off into dreamland, Claidi vaguely wondered if she would encounter the strange figure at Hogwarts, but dismissed the thought quickly, thinking that someone so unpleasant would surely not be her choice of friend or enemy.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The gentle sun upon her cheek woke Claidi the next morning earlier than she had expected, but she didn't mind.

This way she could think as she packed the last few things into her trunk.

Who had that figure been? Would she meet him today?

Her hands slipped as she was putting the last of her socks away and she cut her finger in the edge of the trunk.

The gash on her finger was small, but beads of blood appearing on it told her it was deeper than it appeared.

Claidi watched the crimson liquid flow down her finger, almost fascinated by its movement and its contrast to her pale skin.

She came back to reality in a single heartbeat in which a slight bit more crimson coated her finger. Claidi needed a bandage.

She scrabbled clumsily around her room looking for anything to stem the flow, but found nothing.

Claidi stood up and pushed open her door determined to wake Mrs. Cole.

Upon entering the hallway, however, she came upon a barrier of trunks obviously generated by the figure down the hall.

She sighed.

It was going to be a long day.

She tied a sock around her finger and finished packing just as Mrs. Cole came to get her and load her into a cab.

Claidi remembered everything that Dumbledore had told her about Hogwarts and shivered as Mrs. Cole shut the door of the car.

The taxi sped along to Kings Cross station and she left it after thanking the driver in the parking lot.

Her journey was about to begin.

***

Claidi didn't have a clue where a girl such as her was to sit on a train such as this.

She was new, and she could already tell that people knew it.

They stared at her all the way down the train and she couldn't return any of their gazes.

This was probably one of the most frightening things she had ever done, save destroying that car, but that was out of anger. Never had she inflicted such discomfort upon her self willingly.

Pair after pair of eyes locked on her as she moved along the train hoping to find a seemingly nonexistent compartment to sit in.

Claidi turned around and around as she tried to find a pair that was friendly enough to speak to, but got no such luck. Most of the eyes were purely curious, hostile, or cold.

But one pair that stood out from all of the others was none of those things.

Curious, yes, but also intense in a fashion Claidi had never seen before.

The eyes were a smouldering grey-black that seemed to smother all thoughts inside, but were deep enough to show Claidi that there were very deep thoughts within them.

They were the saddest, most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and they almost cancelled out the rest of the face they belonged to, though they weren't overly protuberant.

They were set into a remarkably handsome face belonging to a boy of about sixteen. He had slightly wavy dark hair to match his eyes and was tall with the stature of a man.

Though all of the others in the hall shied away from him, Claidi felt an inexplicable draw to him, as if she knew him well and they had already met.

"Hello" he said, surprising her by making the first comment. His voice was velvety and at the perfect pitch. It matched his looks and tortured eyes perfectly.

It was almost as if Claidi had heard the voice…it was familiar…

"My name is Tom Riddle. I wonder what yours is and how you came to be here. Also, I wonder why you're not in your compartment with your friends as the train is about to leave."

Claidi didn't feel embarrassed or angry by his comments as she would have under any other circumstances.

"I do not have a place to sit Tom Riddle. Have you any suggestions?"

He smiled slightly, and Claidi felt her heart melt with that smile. It was just too perfect.

"If you wish, you could sit with me. Please follow."

Claidi hesitated, wondering if she really wanted to, but it seemed that she had no other choice.

She walked fluidly down the train's length as she followed Tom, earning a few admiring stares from the males on the train.

He stopped at a compartment whose door seemed to be of darker wood than the rest. A sign on it read "Prefects".

"Normally, only prefects would be allowed into this compartment, but you have nowhere else to sit and the other prefects are with their friends. I doubt that they would take offence to your presence."

Claidi nodded with a jerk of her head.

Tom opened the door and gestured for her to enter first.

She complied.

The two of them sat facing each other, their eyes locked. Claidi found herself unable to look away from those intensely dark eyes and began to speculate about his life story and what could have made him look so utterly pained.

He seemed to be analyzing her in a similar fashion as he penetrated her poisonous eyes.

They were silent for a full fifteen minutes before Claidi broke the trance with a yawn.

Tom smiled again, but his eyes seemed to could over as if he was retreating deeper into his own thoughts.

Claidi wanted to say something witty and intelligent that would pull his eyes out of the clouds to focus entirely upon her.

She wanted him to notice her like she had never wanted anything before.

The funny thing was that she had only just met him but she seemed as obsessed with him over the course of these few minutes as she should have from being in love with him for decades upon decades.

This was way too much. She should be sitting here waiting for Hogwarts to come into view by herself and not giving a thought to what some boy said, even if he did have tortured eyes and a handsome face.

Claidi turned her face away and surveyed the compartment rather than Tom.

The panelling on the walls was a dark wood that had a sheen to it, probably some sort of varnish…she didn't know what to make of it. The place smelled of parchment and ink, but another smell inhabited it that didn't seem permanent at all. It was the smell of pine and expensive cologne, of rain and morning dew, but all combined into one complicated scent.

It was the best thing Claidi had ever smelled, but it almost seemed inhuman, as if something so pure could only come from an other-worldly creature.

She looked back at Tom, only to find his dark eyes unclouded and fixed only upon her.

Claidi froze, acutely aware of every hair on his head, every movement of his chest as he inhaled and held his breath.

Her attention was trapped by him yet again, and it almost frustrated her.

"I seem to be bothering you, Tom Riddle. Shall I leave?" Claidi said when he did not speak.

"No! No, you needn't leave on my account. In fact, I'm still rather curious about you."

Claidi shrugged. It wasn't like she wanted to leave.

"What is it you wanted to ask exactly?"

"Well, let's start with your name since I don't know what to call you yet," said Tom, smiling slightly.

Claidi remained unsmiling. "I'm called Cladissa Newton, but please only call me Claidi. Cladissa is such a strange name, and, although Claidi isn't much different, it sounds less old fashioned and I actually like it."

Tom's smile was still in place. "Alright, Claidi. Have you always been here at Hogwarts, or are you here for the first time?"

She hesitated, wondering if this was a wise question to answer truthfully.

"What about you Tom? Do you always ask these questions of girls without friends?"

Tom's smile faded into a slight frown, but not an overly angry one.

"Why do you take interest in me, Tom?" Claidi asked, pushing for an answer.

"I don't know," he whispered, "I have no idea why I even looked your way, Claidi."

She should have felt insulted by his words, but for some reason, the way he spoke prevented her from feeling anger. It was almost as if he was saddened or troubled by his lack of understanding his attraction to her.

Claidi was desperate to bring this strange conversation back to normal subjects and feelings, so she resorted to desperate measures.

"How about this weather we're having?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

His sad eyes turned into unreadable orbs for a fraction of a second, then, miraculously, he laughed.

"I can see you aren't comfortable with that topic; shall we switch to something more suitable?"

Claidi rolled her eyes. The spell was broken.

"Why don't we just sit in silence? I think that would probably please you most."

"If you like," he replied.

She nodded and the two of them did indeed sit in silence for the rest of the train ride past neat green fields and gargantuan blue mountains.

Claidi was lost to the beauty she stared at out of the window, for with the silence crept the spell that had held her for the first segment of the trip.

Tom's every movement made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, his every breath made hers stop.

As the train ride finally ended, Tom stood up to open the compartment door for her and their arms brushed against one another.

An electric current seemed to run from his skin to hers though they were both clad in long-sleeved robes. Chills darted up and down her spine and her cheeks went suddenly rosy as her green eyes locked on his dark ones.

The two of them stood there for a full minute before they realized that the rest of the world was still real.

"I hope to see you again, Claidi. We had a very…pleasant train ride and you seem very intelligent. Are you in Slytherin?"

Claidi didn't know what to say in reply, but was spared having to answer by another, more familiar voice calling her name.

"Cladissa? Ah, there you are! I had hoped to catch you before you joined your…friend on the carriages. I need a word," said Dumbledore. He turned to Tom.

"Good evening, Tom. I see you've met Ms. Newton. She is a transfer from Bauxbatons, though her French is not very good. We will see you at the feast."

Claidi noticed with some puzzlement that his tone had turned clipped and rather cold. Though Tom clearly wasn't very popular with the students of Hogwarts, she had thought that teachers would appreciate his excellent vocabulary and manners…

Tom leaned close to her and whispered very close to her ear, "We will speak again, Claidi. I should like to acquaint myself with you further… maybe we could have lunch. I'll keep in contact in any case."

She felt her lungs contract rapidly as his hot breath touched her earlobe, for even being in close contact with him gave her a high that she could not get enough of.

"Off you go, Tom. The carriages are waiting for you," Dumbledore said sharply.

Tom nodded in his direction and gazed upon Claidi one last time.

"I will see you again, I hope. I've never met anyone who is so… unpredictable."

She nodded mutely and looked directly into those bottomless black eyes.

"We will meet again. I can feel it."

Dumbledore's eyes widened as he watched Claidi turn from Tom to enter the carriage.

She didn't even know where that had come from, but it was very odd… it had felt like she was prophesizing for a moment there…

She flung her blood red hair over her shoulder as she stepped up to sit with the headmaster.

Tom's eyes stayed locked on her the entire time that the carriage pulled away from Hogsmede station, his forehead wrinkled slightly in a frown.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Albus Dumbledore had never been so confused in his life. He was sitting in his office just off of the Transfiguration classroom, just before the feast, contemplating the taste of the chicken pie at dinner, the secrets of the universe, and Cladissa Newton.

It was the final item that had him so puzzled, as the chicken pie had been a little stale and the secrets of the universe were nothing new. Claidi had to be the least ordinary person he'd ever met, including Tom Riddle. She was so beautiful and intelligent, but seemed oblivious to both of those traits. Her poisonous eyes held depths of pain and joy; he had been able to see all of her through those eyes when she looked at him before, but now that she had met Tom, she seemed closed somehow. It was like he held her under a spell.

He sighed and sat back in his chair, flicking his wand at the curtains of his office which snapped shut immediately.

Reaching for his glass of mead, he imagined again those words that she had spoken to Tom before the two of them had gotten onto the carriage to Hogwarts.

"_We will meet again. I can feel it."_

The words ran through his head again and again until he snapped his eyes shut and banished them from his mind.

He had to make absolutely sure that Claidi Newton wasn't becoming enchanted by Tom Marvolo Riddle. He couldn't let her fall victim to the kind of wizard who her parents had died to protect her from.

She was not going to suffer their fate at the hands of another wizard hoping to destroy the muggle community.

Cladissa Newton was going to keep away from Tom Riddle if it was the last thing Albus Dumbledore did.

She would never become his slave.

**********************

Tom Riddle was puzzled. In all of his years of being in complete control of his life and feelings, he'd never, _ever_ felt this way. What was it that this girl had done to him to make him so utterly confused? How had she made his head spin around on his neck as if nothing had held it in place? Her eyes had engulfed him in their poisonous glory and beauty. He had wanted to drown himself in their secrets and cure their obvious pain, and Tom Riddle _never _thought of others or their feelings.

But _this_ girl, she was different.

When he had touched her arm, the shock that had pulsed through his skin had been unexpected, but wonderful at the same time.

In all of his life, which, admittedly, hadn't been fraught with people to care about, he had never felt so much attachment to a single person.

Cladissa Newton excited in him a side of his personality that he had never known existed. She was a puzzle, and, for some strange reason, he wanted to solve it.

But he couldn't afford to think about a _girl _at this moment.

He chided himself and got back to thinking about his lovely plan, the plan that would rid him and his home of all of those vermin muggle- borns.

Tom's features stretched slightly into a smile that did not quite enhance his features, and there was an odd red gleam in his eyes.

What did he care for a girl, even an exquisitely beautiful one like Claidi Newton, when he had power and influence as the heir of Slytherin?

He could kill half of the school or even all of it if he so wished, even pure-bloods.

He was powerful, no doubt about it; maybe he would even be the greatest sorcerer in the world someday.

Yes, he had no need of Claidi. He had everything he could ever want in his life.

He would just have to keep this girl from his mind.

***********************************************

Claidi had been pensive through the whole carriage ride to Hogwarts as she thought about Tom Riddle and the mysteries he clearly held.

She had only been with him for a few hours, but those hours with him had probably been the strangest and best that she'd ever spent with anybody.

When she'd sat in silence with him for those hours, she'd had thoughts of dark forests, power, drowning, and even the war.

The war.

Claidi never stopped thinking about her parents now of coarse, but over this past year, she had thought so much about her old friend Jamie.

He was her age, sixteen, and also extremely handsome. He was brave and foolhardy too. They had known each other since they were very young and some children from the next block had been picking on him when Claidi was walking down the street. She had leapt into the tussle and helped him show those Leas twins not to pick on him. She had come away with a cut lip, bloody nose, and best friend. Claidi remembered very clearly the day that Jamie had knocked on her family's door and stood gravely on the threshold in his crisp new uniform. Her mother had come to get her from her room where she had been doing her homework and, without telling her what she could expect at the door, had led her to Jamie.

Claidi cringed inwardly at the memory.

She had stood staring at him wearing those funny clothes that she'd seen in the newspaper and on local young men lately. She knew what they were, but it was so strange seeing them on Jamie that she didn't really realize what it meant.

"I'm going to fight, Claidi," he'd said in a totally matter- of- fact voice that he usually reserved for school.

She had stared at him blankly for a moment before the full impact of what he'd said had hit her. Then, quite abruptly, she'd slammed the door in his face and sprinted upstairs to her room where she'd shoved all of her clothes into a canvas bag with a few books, her toothbrush and a heavy blanket.

Claidi, who'd always been good at climbing, had opened her window, removed the bug screen, and scaled the wall of her house.

She had stayed out that night in the park on a bench wrapped up in her blanket staring at the stars as she cried herself to sleep.

Her parents had known where she was for the whole night but had let her get her emotions vented out.

She didn't find out until later that Jamie had sat a little ways off all night to make sure that nobody disturbed her.

The next day she had woken up in his arms as he carried her back to her house, blanket and all, her pack swung over his shoulders. She'd wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and wouldn't let go of him even when he'd brought her home.

She had sobbed into his shoulder almost hysterically, begging him not to go, saying that he was too young to go, and knowing the whole time that nothing would stop Jamie from going to fight for freedom.

He had gone home to change and come back, but he seemed like a different Jamie even out of the uniform.

When he'd gotten back, it had only been to say goodbye for real because he was leaving the next morning at extremely short notice.

He'd kissed her just before he left. Nothing forceful or gross, just a gentle kiss at the last moment before he went home.

She'd cried again, but it was with a little more of a clear head.

Claidi had gone to see him off at the train station the next morning. He'd been wearing his uniform again.

He stood on the back of the train and looked sombrely at her and only her.

She dashed to leap on the slowly accelerating train and hold him in her arms one last time. Their last kiss had been passionate and desperate beyond all measures, but she had to get off the train.

Claidi had jumped off and waved to him as tears blurred her vision and he leaned over the railing of the caboose, his hand stretched out to her until he'd disappeared in a whirl of the fog that surrounded everything in a smothering cloud of white that day.

Strangely enough, she'd felt guilty sitting in that compartment with Tom and staring into those smouldering grey- black eyes. It was like she was letting Jamie down, like she was doing something dishonourable by just looking at Tom, with his deep eyes and handsome face.

_I haven't done anything wrong _she thought, frustrated with herself for taking this brief meeting with Tom way too far.

_It's not like I kissed him._

She suddenly came back to herself.

Claidi was sitting at her new house table with the other Ravenclaws at the start of term feast and everyone was staring at her covertly.

_I guess it's odd for people to join new at sixteen _she thought, returning some of the curious looks with a shy smile.

Aside from Tom who was staring at her slightly reproachfully from across the hall at Slytherin table, only one other boy dared to stare at her unrestrained.

He was in Slytherin too, sitting at Tom's right. He had ice blue eyes and a pointed chin. She supposed he was handsome, though he couldn't hold a candle to Jamie or Tom…

_Why do I keep thinking of Tom?_

Tom's head suddenly jerked to look at the other boy with such a poisonous glare that Claidi could almost feel the boy's insides go cold from where she sat. Tom whispered angrily to him, and the boy paled and quickly looked away from Claidi.

She arched her flaming eyebrows at Tom before eating a bit more of her meal.

_I will _not _think about Tom Riddle while I eat!_

She bent her head over her plat, done with staring crowds, handsome boys, and guilty thoughts of Jamie.

_Oh Jamie… I wish you were her with me to help me with all of this peer stuff and magic and weird boys who I will _not _think about… you'd know just what to do and I'd never be lost or the only new person around here… I wish you were here to hug me and tell me that everything is okay and that I shouldn't worry about all of this and that I'm thinking too much… Is it possible to go into thought hysterics? What if I start crying right now at the table in front of the whole school? How will I catch up with five missed years of magic? HELP!_

She shook her head to clear out the thoughts raging through her brain at lighting speed.

To her right, sitting with a few seats empty on either sides of her, a girl of Claidi's age turned to stare critically at her.

The girl was short and stout but not extremely overweight; more like rounded at the edges. She had a slim face and rosy cheeks that were slightly splotchy. Her large, surprisingly bright brown eyes were hidden behind a pair of thick spectacles and her nondescript nose and lips were scrunched as she surveyed Claidi with an air of suspicion. Her limp brown hair hung in curtains around her face as though to prevent anyone getting too close to her.

Claidi stared back, wondering if this girl could tell that she was new to Hogwarts.

"Hello. I'm Claidi Newton. What's your name?" Claidi held out her hand to the other girl as she waited for her to answer her question.

The girl looked suspicious again, but took the hand that was offered to her.

"My name is Myrtle."

She didn't say more, but Claidi could tell from the look those huge brown eyes were giving her that Myrtle was in need of a friend.

"Are you a sixth year too? I'm afraid I don't know anybody here and if you are we might be in the same dorm…"

Myrtle was staring over her shoulder with a look of resigned dread.

"You want to get to know people in this school and the first person you turn to is Moaning, Moping, Miserable Myrtle? Fat Myrtle? Spotty Myrtle? Ugly Myrtle? You're really new, aren't you?" said a voice from over Claidi's left shoulder.

Claidi turned to look at the girl behind her who's mean, nasal, whining voice had insulted Myrtle.

The girl to whom it belonged was pretty, with large blue eyes framed with long thick lashes that were obviously the product of large amounts of makeup, long, curly platinum- blonde hair, and a short, very thin frame. But Claidi immediately disliked her.

"I think you should stick with sixth years who know what they're talking about. I know that my friends and I would be happy to show you the tricks of Hogwarts instead of boring you with moaning and moping about classes and repelling every person in sight with her ugliness."

Claidi liked this girl less and less with every word that came out of her pouty pink mouth.

"I think learning the tricks of Hogwarts is something I should do alone. And, by the way, the only person moaning, not to mention repelling all in sight is you. Go get a hobby, and maybe blow your nose too. I think you've got phlegm build- up. Or is that just your regular voice?"

Myrtle let out a loud belly laugh which she quickly stifled with her hand as the blonde girl's cheeks flamed cherry red. Claidi barely noticed that the Great Hall had gone silent to listen to their fight.

Truth be told, she was quite enjoying this.

A slight smile twitched the corners of her mouth as the blonde looked for support from her friends, but floundered in the social ridicule.

Claidi decided to rescue her.

"I usually avoid remarks of such a personal nature, especially when they are targeted to hurt another, so I'm sorry that I insulted you, though I'm not saying anything I said is untrue. I just wish you didn't have to belittle a perfectly amiable person in order to gain confidence yourself. Really, it's an immature way to handle a situation. And by the way, Myrtle was one of the first people to acknowledge my existence without looking like she was swallowing mud. I'm not really that bad, you know."

Claidi finished addressing the blonde girl and turned back to Myrtle who, by the looks of it, was barely managing not to let out another belly laugh at the expression of shock on the blonde girl's face. That girl was clearly used to being treated like her word was the law.

Sensing that she was still behind her, Claidi turned.

"Are you going to gawp at me all feast, or do I get to sleep without a stalker on my mind tonight?" she asked, enjoying the girl's expression more than she should have.

Blondie and her posy turned without so much as a word to Claidi or Myrtle and headed back to their seats, where they sat down and put their heads together, muttering mutinously and casting Claidi nasty glances.

Myrtle gaped at her, still stifling her laughter.

"That's the only time I've ever seen _anybody _put down Olive Hornbey that bad! She's practically royalty here with the other students, and you just humiliated her in front of the whole school! How did you not get scared of her? If she'd looked daggers at me like that, I'd have made a run for it!" she gasped, letting some of her bottled up glee giggle its way out.

Claidi shrugged.

"She humiliated you, so I thought it was fair to do so in turn, seeing as she seems to be used to getting her way. The only way you can deal with people who are nasty to you is to either be the bigger person and not let it get to which, quite frankly, I've done enough lately, or to be confident and show them that you can't be trampled down. I was just doing you a favour."

Myrtle shook her head in wonder, her limp curtains of hair swishing faintly back and forth.

"You will do great things, Claidi Newton."

Claidi grinned slightly, not even caring that Olive was now making rather loud and rude jokes about redheads.

She'd made a friend that didn't make her feel guilty when she thought of her, and no amount of redhead jokes could dampen her spirit at this very moment.

The feast finally ended and the Great Hall had gone back to its buzz of talk, but several people introduced themselves to Claidi after that, usually with big grins and compliments on her insults and standing up to Olive.

It seemed that she wasn't so popular after all

She went up to Ravenclaw tower with Myrtle and the rest of the Ravenclaws and made her way upstairs past the common room with the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw and into the dormitory marked "Sixth years".

She and Myrtle stepped inside along with, to Myrtle's utter horror, Olive and her friend Matilda with another very shy girl named Pomona.

None of the girls talked as they changed into their pyjamas and fell into their blue trimmed four- poster beds.

Claidi was too tired to even think about how difficult and awkward this dormitory was going to be in the future.

She just fell back onto her pillow and slept. 


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

When she awoke the next morning, Claidi knew it was far too early for her to be awake. The sun outside was barely above the horizon outside her dorm window. It glowed vividly orange over the emerald lawn, casting a brilliant stripe of light on the otherwise grey grounds. In the light's path, Claidi could see a beautiful old oak tree casting a long spidery shadow. It looked forgotten somehow, but so beautiful and old that Claidi knew she had to see it up close after her lessons, maybe during lunch.

Speaking of which, Claidi wasn't at all sure what she would be doing in terms of lessons, seeing as she didn't nearly have enough magical training to be in the sixth year classes. It would be really humiliating to have to start fresh in first year classes with a bunch of eleven year olds…

She pushed back her blankets and pulled away her blue hangings as she opened her trunk to find a set of black robes like the ones she'd worn the day before. She pulled them on, making sure that her blue Ravenclaw colours showed plain. She pulled her blood red hair from her robes to let it hang in thick a, slightly wavy cascade down her back. She pulled her wand from her pocket and, without thinking about it at all, waved it at her head to make the red waves instantly strait. She looked critically at her reflection in the mirror that hung on the wall opposite to her bed. Her features showed there pale as always but with a slight bit of colouring in her cheeks that stopped her from looking like a corpse. Her large, poisonous green eyes were very noticeable, especially as they were framed by long, thick lashes that, surprisingly, were black, not red. Her hair itself was blood red, not overly bright as it would have been if it was dyed, but pure red. It now hung perfectly strait, framing her sculpted face perfectly. Her lips were a good shade of pink, nearing red, but not artificially. Her nose was normal, sculpted and, as her mother described it, "the prettiest little nose ever to be beheld" but it fit perfectly with the rest of her features. She decided that she'd wear a little bit of makeup today, just to look nice on her first day. Claidi put bright red lipstick on her mouth, framing her already lovely lips perfectly. She had no blemishes to speak of, so she didn't need anything more as she didn't ever need mascara. She brushed her already flawless hair until it gleamed in a beautiful, waist- length cascade. She wondered if she should put it up, and decided that she would leave it down for the time being. Jamie had often told her that her hair looked best when it was down, hanging loose.

She was now sure that she looked her best, but it had only been a few minutes, so the day was still far too new for her to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast, especially alone.

Claidi stood, undecided, looking back and forth between the door and Myrtle.

"I'm awake, Claidi. I'll go down to breakfast with you now if you want. I usually wake up early anyway," said Myrtle's voice from her left.

Claidi grinned thankfully at her.

"Thanks. I didn't know what to do with myself; I don't even know where I'm going for classes or anything, so I thought going down early would be a good idea."

Myrtle nodded as she got dressed and then the two of them went down to the common room where some seventh years were studying their notes from the previous year rather ambitiously by the fire.

Claidi smiled at them as she passed, liking the feeling of belonging to a house.

The two of them entered the empty Great Hall together, only to be intercepted at the door by Tom Riddle.

Myrtle took one look at him and scurried right past, her head bowed so that he couldn't see her past her brown curtains of hair.

He barely even acknowledged her presence with a glance that said only too plainly that he thought he was far above her.

Claidi didn't like that look at all.

"Hello, Claidi Newton. I wanted to speak to you again, but dinner last night seemed and inappropriate place to do it. I thought we might share breakfast this morning; perhaps under the old oak tree outside?" he said in a rather emotionless voice that was betrayed by his lovely dark eyes. They glowed with hope and anticipation.

Claidi gave him the same glance that he'd given Myrtle.

"I've actually made plans for breakfast this morning, Tom. Perhaps we can meet under the tree for lunch." She replied tersely.

He looked surprised for only a moment before he nodded and his handsome face closed into a hard emotionless shell.

"Of course. I will bring the food and meet you there after the break bell goes."

He turned to head back into the Great Hall with a swish of his black robes, the back of his wavy dark haired head looking very handsome.

Claidi almost wished she'd agreed to eat breakfast with Tom Riddle under that old oak tree that she'd seen outside her window this morning, but she knew that she wasn't exactly in the position to be ditching her only friend that she would see all day.

She strode into the Great Hall to see that a few teachers were sitting at the head table eating their breakfast and talking in slightly sleepy murmurs.

She sat down at the nearly deserted Ravenclaw table with Myrtle and began to eat some bacon and cereal that Myrtle passed her. She was just pouring herself some orange juice when Professor Dumbledore strode down to where she sat.

He smiled kindly down at her and said, "Good morning, Cladissa. I hope you are finding your time at Hogwarts enjoyable so far? Good! Well, Professor Dippet decided that the best way to help you catch up to the other sixth years is for me to tutor you privately for this year. Depending on how quickly you learn and write your O.W.L.s, which I will explain soon enough, you may be able to join your fellow sixth years near the end of this year. Mind, you must work extremely hard to catch up on five years of magical study in only one, but I think you'll probably be a natural at this spell work. I will meet you directly outside of the Great Hall after you have finished eating so that we can get started. I look forward to teaching you!"

And he left her to finish her meal with Myrtle looking at her curiously.

"So, Claidi, why is Professor Dumbledore teaching you five years of magic in one?" she asked cautiously.

Claidi didn't mind telling Myrtle for some reason. She would never have told anybody else, but she seriously doubted that Myrtle would make fun of her or tell anyone what Claidi revealed.

So Claidi told her everything, from her parents' murder by Grindlewald to the letter they had sent her to the destroyed police car to the orphanage she was now living in.

"So you see, I've never been exposed to magic before. I guess it's just been holding itself inside me all of this time," she finished as Myrtle's mouth hung agape.

She sat in silence for a moment.

"You poor thing! I can't believe that Grindlewald frightened your parents so much that they couldn't even send you to school without you and them becoming targets! I mean, you've had to grow up as a muggle for even longer than I did! And then you had to come here after having all of this thrust at you because of your parents' murder and learn everything new at a disadvantage!"

Claidi sighed.

"Yes, that about sums up how I feel."

Myrtle put an arm around her shoulder in the exact same kind of friendly hug that Jamie would have given her before they kissed.

_Why am I thinking about Jamie when I'm at a place he doesn't know exists about to learn witchcraft which he doesn't believe in? He's not here! Get a grip on yourself!_

"Thanks for understanding, Myrtle. You won't tell anybody, will you? I've heard some people are nasty to muggle born people, and I can't imagine what they'd say if they found out that I have absolutely no magical experience!" 

"Of course I won't tell anyone! Now go and have your lesson! The sooner you start, the sooner people can have less chance of exposing you. I'll tell them that your magical education was a little different at Bauxbatons and that Dumbledore is trying to channel your powers the way we do here."

Claidi thanked her and stood up to exit the Great Hall with her friend.

The two of them made their way along the table and to the doors that led into the Entrance Hall.

They said goodbye and Claidi turned to see Dumbledore standing casually by the door.

His electric blue eyes twinkled kindly as he led her without speaking to an empty classroom a little ways off that stood directly beside a portrait of a centaur which was practicing his accuracy on a bow. Claidi stopped to stare, amazed, as the centaur's arrow found its mark on a tree that was painted in the background of its frame.

"Claidi, I really think we should start our lesson now. He'll probably still be here when we get out again," said Dumbledore, smiling.

She nodded and followed him into the room.

He closed the door so that they wouldn't be disturbed and smiled at Claidi.

"Now, Claidi, I know this is a lot to take in, but we have to start somewhere. We're going to begin with an explanation of each subject that all of the students here learn in first year.

"Let's start with Transfiguration, the subject that I normally teach. Transfiguration is the art of changing one thing into another with a spell. That's only the essential definition, of coarse, as there are many more rules involved with what you can and can't transfigure, but you get the gist.

"Another thing that all first years learn is Charms. Now, charms are basically all of the rest of the spells that aren't Transfigurations or Jinxes. They can range from a Cheering Charm to a Summoning Charm.

"Now, Jinxes are basically spells that are intended to harm another person, but we usually refrain from teaching them in any particular class, though I'm sure some Defence Against the Dark Arts classes will require you to defend yourself with jinxes.

"Speaking of which, you'll be learning Defence Against the Dark Arts from me as well. That class is about defending yourself from dark magic.

"You'll also be learning Potions from me.

"The final class I'll be teaching you is History of Magic which is an interesting class that is mainly taught through books. In fact, I think you could probably teach that to yourself in your free time. We'll have a test for each chapter that you'll fill out every week so that I know you're absorbing everything.

"Are you following so far?"

Claidi nodded, for she did understand everything he'd told her, but she was thinking of all of the things she had to learn in dismay.

Dumbledore seemed to detect her worry in her face and smiled.

"Don't worry, Cladissa. You'll learn fast, I can see it. It takes a lot longer for an entire class to learn things than for one individual with an instinct for magic to pick them up. I'd say the only things you'll have trouble with learning are the fifth year classes because that's the year you take your examinations. We'll start everything now and if you work hard, you may be able to advance to sixth year material and finish with everyone else by the end of the year.

"Now, let's get started!"

For the next few hours, she worked arduously on first year Transfiguration and Charms, learning the basic rules and a few spells. It was hard work and she quickly grew exhausted and frustrated as she waved her wand and performed her spells excellently only to have to master new ones right after them.

Finally, after Claidi had managed to change a mouse into a snuffbox with only one whisker left, Dumbledore called for a break.

"I'm very pleased with your progress today, Claidi! You're well on your way to becoming a fine witch! Now, I have a question for you before we head off to lunch."

She waited, wondering if this had anything to do with the Transfiguration theory she had learned earlier that morning.

"How on earth did you get your hair so strait?" he asked, smiling kindly at her confused expression.

Claidi thought about it and realized that she'd had no idea how to do it this morning when she'd waved her wand automatically over her hair to straiten it to her liking.

"I just thought that it would look nicer strait, pointed my wand at my head, and my hair straitened out when I waved it," she replied simply.

Dumbledore smiled in a satisfied sort of way.

"I thought as much. I think your magic has been developing inside your consciousness for awhile now, Cladissa, and it's starting to manifest itself in little, mostly unnoticed ways. You could almost behave as a young witch of your age would, and most spells wouldn't even cause you to bat an eyelash, but we need to train you up properly. It's good to know that you're so efficient already, though."

Claidi was amazed that such a small gesture could make Dumbledore draw such expectant conclusions about her magical abilities; it made her uneasy.

He dismissed her to go for lunch, and Claidi breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'll see you here after the break?" she asked tentatively.

"Certainly. Enjoy your lunch, Miss Newton," was Dumbledore's reply.

She smiled as she strode form the small classroom and saw Myrtle standing in the doorway to the Great Hall.

Oops.

She had forgotten to tell Myrtle that she was having lunch with Tom, and somehow, it didn't seem like a good idea to tell her only real friend at the moment that she was ditching her for a guy that was very unpleasant toward her.

Claidi decided just to lie and hope for the best.

"Hey Myrtle! I'm sorry, but I have to study this lunch break; Professor Dumbledore told me that I should independently study my History of Magic texts. I'll meet up with you as soon as I can, though, okay?"

Claidi felt guilty as she saw the disappointment in Myrtle's eyes, but reassured herself that it was probably better that she met Tom on her own. He'd be less likely to insult her that way.

She said a last goodbye to her friend and spun on the spot, her blood-red hair swishing in a fantastically brilliant cascade.

This was going to be a one-time thing. Myrtle was a way better friend than Tom Riddle.

_Don't worry, Jamie. I'll never get myself associated with Tom Riddle. He's trouble I don't need._

********

Tom sat in the grounds with a basket packed full of food he'd procured form the kitchens for his lunch with Claidi.

This girl was giving him so much more grief than he was used to!

He certainly didn't need to be worried about some red-headed, frosty and somewhat unreadable girl whose powers in magic were beyond his knowledge.

Alright, maybe this was a case for Tom to be a little wary.

But at least she was interesting, not like all of these other girls who gossiped about makeup and boys who weren't even the remotest bit interested in them (like him for instance).

No. Claidi wasn't interested in those things.

As far as he could tell, she was in pain. Severe pain.

And if he ever needed any leverage with her, that was something he could tap into, once he got the truth about that pain from her…

But she was coming now.

And the image of her striding down to meet him in her long, billowing black robes with her long, shining torrent of blood-red hair streaming behind her in the new breeze and her large, poisonous green eyes vivid in her ivory face with pain hidden in their depths was just beautiful enough to put all thoughts of plotting to destroy her out of his head.

Tom couldn't speak for a moment as he surveyed her monumental loveliness. His words caught in his throat and he chided himself silently for allowing himself to be so weak, especially in the face of his potential adversary.

He sat up and ignored the tugs on his heart as Claidi glanced his way and smiled in that hear-breaking fashion that he could not stand in the least.

No other girls smiled like that.

He would just have to put this nonsense out of his head if he was going to have any success at all with his plans for his castle.

Hogwarts was going to have a very interesting year, if he had any say in the matter, which, of course, he most certainly did.


End file.
